09/05/2016 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

The Philippine economy has been one of Asia's star performers. Will its

new president keep up the good work? And China's levels of bad debt is

causing jitters among the investment community. Good morning, Asia,

hello, world. Welcome to Asia Business Report. Thank you for

investing your time with us. It is the start of a brand-new week. It is

Monday. Thank you for joining us. I am Rico Hizon. It is a big day in

the Philippines. Millions of people have started voting for a new

president. It has been one of the few economic success stories in Asia

with GDP growth of around 6%. There are concerns that the residential

candidate, Rodrigo Duterte, could undo some of that progress. --

presidential. I spoke to a correspondent. He is a wild card.

For the foreign investment community, as you are saying,

everyday Filipinos, some of the biggest issues for them are

corruption and poverty, even though they have seen remarkable growth

over the last years. Poverty rates have stayed at the 5% level. That

hasn't changed over the last few decades. It is these sorts of issues

which have resulted in such a strong showing at the polls for Rodrigo

Duterte. He is known as the punisher. He is a controversial and

loud figure. The concern from the economic community is that he said

he would sever ties with the US and Australia. That won't give

confidence to investors. He doesn't have a clear economic policy in

place. His policies are about fighting crime and drugs and

corruption. On the other hand, voters are disenchanted with the

administration at the moment because traffic, you may experience it in

Manila, it takes hours to get from place to place. Much infrastructure

is unfinished. There is an ongoing sense of frustration. Despite the

numbers this government keeps spouting, more money for

infrastructure and education, etc, people don't feel it. They feel they

have been left out of the economic growth success story. There is

disenchantment. Just walk down the streets of Manila to see the way the

infrastructure is completely destroying any chance of people to

enjoy the fruits of economic growth. It is this disenchantment, the sense

they have been left out of the economic boom, and also the fact

they feel the system is stacked up against them... A statistic we

talked about earlier, 40% of legislators in the Philippines have

ties and connections to bury politically placed families. --

very. There is a sense among people, I certainly felt it, that,

look we will vote for the wild card outsider because everything until

now has not worked in our favour. Karishma Vaswani on the Philippine

election. Could China's economy crash? That has been a worry for a

long time, especially after expected trade numbers over the weekend

showed and remains weak. Exports and imports fell in April, widening the

surplus to a bout $46 billion. However, it is not macro economics

but the financial system which is making them nervous. -- to about. It

is the biggest, accounting for two fifths of global GDP. It is the

third biggest behind the United States in terms of being a bond

market behind the US and Japan. I spoke to Simon in Shanghai. Bad debt

poses a major risk to the financial system. The official bad loan ratio

is 1.7%. They have a categorical special mention loans which should

be loans at risk but most investors think they are bad already. That is

5.5% already. When you look at the balance sheets carefully of the

different banks, especially the mid-sized and smaller ones, they

have ratios of 15 to 20% already. That picture is already concerning.

The big thing is Beijing trying to address it. At a turning a blind

eye? -- are they. One step forward and one back. They have talked about

vulnerabilities and have come up with small solutions for dealing

with it. There was a spot where risky loans were transferred from

government bonds. Now they are being swapped from equity companies.

Little things are being done to address vulnerabilities. But the

worrying thing that has markets on edge is that if you look at the

overall debt to GDP ratio, it was 150% a decade ago, now it is close

to 260%. That is the kind of rise that in other countries,

historically, has brought on serious problems. Be it a serious economic

slowdown or a financial crisis. 260% of GDP! Is the economy now headed

for a hard landing? The argument is that it has got to a point where it

is going to have to be painful. In other business news, Saudi Arabia

has replaced its influential and long serving oil minister as part of

a major economic revamp. The monarchy is looking to move the

country away from oil and merge multiple ministries over the wicket

it. The new Energy Minister is the chairman of and oil giant. -- over

the weekend. -- an. Prices have jumped because of the fires in

Canada. It has taken half of the country's oil capacity. Currently,

Brent is up more than 2%. Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian president,

is calling for an election in July. Australia is experiencing deflation

of oil prices for the first time in seven years as well as rising public

doubt. Polls show that his coalition government has been losing

popularity and is currently almost neck and neck with the opposition,

the Labour Party. Across Asia, diets are changing, and it isn't making us

healthier. Millions of people have diabetes. 100,000 people died from

it last year. One company has seen a business opportunity, delivering

healthy food to those in need. We have more. World health experts say

diabetes is now the third biggest killer in Indonesia after a stroke

or heart disease. TRANSLATION: Diabetes is caused by obesity. I

have type 2 diabetes which is caused by my bad lifestyle that lead to

obesity. Bad diet and exercise habits. Changing diets is crucial to

cracking the problem. Any catering service has started up to do that.

-- A new. It offers healthy food to people with clinical conditions. The

owner's father struggled to find healthy food so he figured others

would as well. TRANSLATION: We want to help people change their dietary

habits so they can enjoy a healthy life. If you do that it can benefit

them for life. MyMeal employs nutrition is to make sure that the

food being prepared meats needs. -- nutritionists. It is delivered by

motorbike. The World Health Organisation says around 10 million

Indonesians have diabetes. Doctors say many people don't even realise

that staple dishes like rice and oily foods push up blood sugar

levels. TRANSLATION: Just giving them the medicine is not enough, you

need to give them a lot of education about food and lifestyle. We also

need to teach them how to take in medicine so they will know the

effect and what will happen if they take too much or too little. You

cannot just give it to them. So far, it has only around 250 customers.

Each meal costs more than $5. This is a country where millions live in

poverty. The company says it is optimistic it can grow its business,

helping to prevent diabetes, and lessening the burden facing the

healthcare system here, now, and into the future. BBC News. Before we

go, I have 35 seconds to tell you about the markets. It begins with

Japan up by 1%. It is a touch higher after US stocks ended in positive

territory. The US central bank may keep interest rates low for another

year. The Nikkei is up to to the weaker yen against the US dollar.

The All Ords is flat at 53-56. Thank you very much for investing your

time with us. I am Rico Hizon. Sport Today is coming up